Back in the saddle again

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Started the Furnace Again

We started the furnace today!

As most of you know we shut down the furnace about the middle of January due to Micah's injury (again, not glass related). I wasn't in the glass blowing mood and with no helper I just shut it down for a short time.

We were going to start it last week but as we were checking it out and tweaking a few things, I saw that the burner head was trashed. I ordered a new Giberson Burner Head from Mr. Giberson @ Joppa Glass. It came in Friday. Also, I had ordered a new Flat Lap Grinder with an assortment of different diamond discs from Holly @ Denver Glass. It also came in on Friday. It is really sharp! It will make grinding a whole lot better. We can grind our paper weights and vases flat and optically clear. We really needed one.

Micah is doing better. For the first couple of days, it looked like he might lose his eye, but he is not going to lose it. The doctor is going to fit him with a new lense later this month. We are confident he will be able to see then. I want to thank everyone who has written, called, or conveyed their concern for him. It meant alot to us!

We are exicited to get back to blowing glass and creating some great art!

I expect it to take 4 - 6 days to slowly bring the furnace up to temp. It was almost full when I shut it down. From what I have been told, it needs to go back up slowly. We have been so busy at the restaurant, we haven't had much time to do a whole lot on the studio. Out of the last 12 months we have set a new all-time record in sales for 8 of those 12 months and are on pace to break our last record which was set again last month, by a significant amount. Good problem to have! Anyway we are going to do our best to finish tweaking the studio during the start-up time.

We will be posting when we start blowing.
Bye for now.
CM

Pics of glass color (Rods & Frit) New Optic Mold

I recounted and I have 105+ jars of frit with a number of extra frit for refill and about 80 something colors of rod.
Here's that new Jim Moore Tools Detachable Fin Mold - It's really cool!
CM

Glass Blowing Weather

Just found a photo of something we blew in December of 06 that I had meant to post but didn't. I really like the pink and black color combination. (We've sold 2 of the "Sea LIfe" sets in that color scheme.) It has the fishnet pattern on it. We were pleased with how it turned out.

Well, Micah and I started tweaking the studio on Wednesday. What that means is thowing a bunch of junk away and trying to declutter the studio. I had ordered a new optic mold and got it in. It is the Jim Moore stainless steel and aluminum mold that has interchangeable ribs or fins. ( http://www.toolsforglass.com/store/other_stuff.html ) (scroll down until you see the 5th picture. It is the "Detachable Fin Mold") I eagerly look forword to using it. I recently ordered hundreds of dollars of color from Olympic Color Rods and it came in last week. I believe I now have about 80 different colors of rods and about 96 different jars of frit. I have been getting all the new stuff labeled and organized and also updating my frit jar system the last week or two. I was using glass milk bottles and glass "fuse" drink bottles. Glass bottles are really cool to put my frit in, but the bottles weren't really big enough and the mouths of the bottles weren't really big enough to make pouring the frit back into the bottle easy when I was cleaning up. Also, a huge reason to make the switch to large mouth plastic jars was I could only imagine what I would feel like if they dopped to the concrete floor. So, cool or not, plastic it is. Now I can sleep at night.

Question to glassblowers: What size/s frit do you like to use the most and why?

The weather was perfect today for blowing glass. Did we blow glass? No, my furnace is off. I certainly have the glass blowing itch. I will prob. turn on the furnace in about 3 or 4 weeks. Micah is healing up nicely. Thanks again to all who have called, written, and come by to express your concern. It means alot.

I may have to take some photos of all the color that I have and post them. I just like going out to the studio and looking at all the jars full (some 1/2 full or so) of color. It brings inspiration.

We are going to try to do some welding and other little projects while the furnace is off. It feels kind of good knowing a steady stream of $10 bills are not flying out the window 24 hours a day while the furnace if off. I can actually go do something and sort of relax when the furnace if shut down. Having said that I really miss blowing glass and can't wait to start again.

Did I mention that in December of 2006 that I was the first one to sign up for a 3 day workshop given by Dante Marioni ( http://www.dantemarioni.com/ ) and Janusz Pozniak ( http://www.jpozniak.com/ ) at a pre Glass Art Society Conference in June of 07 in Pittsburgh? Man, am I excited about that! I'm even a little intimidated about that. I am told there will only be 10 or 12 in the workshop. Class will be from 9 in the morning untill 10 at night with an hour break at 5 - 6. I am really looking forward to learning alot! I hope Dante and Janusz are patient, kind, persons with the ability to bring the best out of people! I intend on my best coming out.

Linda and I went to Chicago about 1 1/2 months ago and went to the Marx-Saunders Gallery (Mr. Saunders was a really nice guy) and saw some of Dante's work in person for the first time. Amazing!
Warning!! Novice's opinion, WARNING!!
As beautiful as Chihuly's work is... and I DO think it is beautiful, I believe that not everyone that could do Chihuly type of work could do what Dante does. Anybody that could do what Dante does could easily do what Chihuly does. The technical precision is extraordinary!
(Novice's opinion about famous glass is over)
We saw Lino Tagliapietra's work also for the first time. ( http://www.linotagliapietra.com/ ) Magnificient!! I think the least expensive piece of Dante's was about $17,000.00 and the least expensive piece of Lino's was about $33,000.00 up to $50,000.00. FOR 1 (COUNT IT) ONE PIECE OF GLASS!!! We also saw some pretty neat stuff from Stephen Powell. ( http://www.stephenrolfepowell.com/index.html ) I can't wait to go again and take Micah with me and show him. Chicago is a pretty cool place to visit.

Whats Been Up

As some of you know, Micah got a severe injury about 4 weeks ago. (Not glass related) I haven't blown since then and finally shut off the furnace about 2 weeks ago until he can get healed up and I get my head back on straight. Micah had another doctor's appt. today and got a good report. About another month or so he should be able to help and I will turn the furnace back on. We are continuing to sell glass at our retail outlet @ Italian Jim's Pizzeria. We have sold a couple of nice sets in the last week. The newspaper is wanting to do a story on us. We are looking forward to getting going again.
CM

Speaking of a "fully involved pizza". . .

Glad to see Scott come up for air! Hey, the bottom photo shows a pic of our Super Pepperoni pizza I told you that I would put up sometime. Yes, this is a normal 20" "Big Jim" Super Pepperoni and yes, that is layers upon layers of pepperoni! We even have a bigger one. It's called the "Humongous Jim" and it's 24". How's that for "fully involved"!

The photo at the top show some more of our pizzas. They are larges (14"). I took the photo right before we put them in the oven and cooked them. The pizza with stripes is a Meat Combo, the "Work of Art Looking Pizza" is a "Garden Veggie", a couple of "Super Pepperonis" and a couple of "Chicken Fajita" pizzas. When they're cooked, they look a little better, but we had to get them to where they need to go ASAP and didn't have time to photograph afterward.

Thanks!

Just wanted to take a few minutes and say "Thanks!" to all who checked out our website and a "Big Thanks!" to all who came into our retail outlet at Italian JIm's Pizzeria @ 342 S. Mustang Rd. in Yukon and bought glass this last year. We sold quite a bit here at Christmas and I want to thank all who chose to give the beautiful, lasting, tasteful, gift of hand blown glass from Bella Forte Glass Studio. So far the feedback that I have gotten says people like to receive the distintive gift of custom blown glass.

As I have said, gifts are important. Proverbs 18:16 (Amplified Bible) A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. Gifts speak to people. . .
What does a Gift say?

A gift says something about you, the giver.
It also says something about the recipient to whom the gift is given.
Distinctive glass, given as a gift, says alot!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and may you have a prosperous New Year!